LOS ANGELES — John Frankenheimer, director of such Hollywood classics as The Manchurian Candidate and Birdman of Alcatraz, died Saturday. He was 72.

        Mr. Frankenheimer died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of a stroke due to complications following spinal surgery.

        Mr. Frankenheimer's career spanned nearly five decades. His work ranged from social dramas to political thrillers, including a highly regarded run of feature films in the 1960s and a string of 152 live television dramas in the '50s.

        He won four consecutive Emmys in the late 1990s for directing cable TV movies. In 1998, his George Wallace won a Peabody Award and a Golden Globe for best television film.

        “Full bore. You gotta give it everything. You just got to give it everything,” he said in a 1998 interview. “And sometimes that's not even enough.”

        The Manchurian Candidate (1962), a satirical conspiracy thriller about a Korean War brainwashing victim, was the film that made Mr. Frankenheimer's name.

        It was followed two years later by another highly regarded political thriller, Seven Days in May, which starred Burt Lancaster as a renegade general planning a coup. Other films included Seconds, Black Sunday and The Train.

        A native New Yorker, Mr. Frankenheimer got his first taste of directing movies while in the Air Force stationed in Burbank. He worked on some documentaries, and in 1953 walked into the CBS office in New York and persuaded the network to give him a chance as an assistant director.

        Mr. Frankenheimer moved from weather and news programming to TV shows. His early credits included 42 episodes of the Playhouse 90 anthology series.

        In the 1970s, Mr. Frankenheimer ran into some personal difficulties, including a drinking problem, which followed the assassination of close friend Robert F. Kennedy.

        Mr. Kennedy was staying at Mr. Frankenheimer's house, and Mr. Frankenheimer drove him to the Ambassador Hotel the night he was killed in 1968.

Special Section: Rosemary Clooney Remembered
Opera carries on nun's message
Sister Helen Prejean speaks on . . .
KIESEWETTER: Fall prime-time will be (bleeping) different
'80s box set is totally righteous
Get to it
DEMALINE: Sunday salons lure political candidates
Favorites fill theater seats
Museum buys self portraits from Jim Dine
Bastille Day deserves fare with French accent
MARTIN: Shrimp and Grits is Southern comfort food
Serve it this week: Goat cheese
DAUGHERTY: $7 a pack might be the price for peace of mind
Collector has turned Erlanger home into playful pigpen
John Frankenheimer, director, dies at 72
Potter imposter hits China